One week into the election campaign and Sunday’s morning shows were dominated by a row over Labour’s spending pledges.
Sajid Javid used his appearance on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show to push the Tory claim that a Jeremy Corbyn government would cost £1.2 trillion.
The chancellor said the analysis conducted by the Conservative Party showed Labour would plunge the country into“within months” within months thanks to its “eye-watering” commitment to spending £650 million a day.
But Javid refused to be drawn on some of his own spending plans – including inheritance and income taxes – saying the party would set them out during the course of the campaign.
“With our plans, because they are properly costed, and by the way – whether it’s a tax pledge or anything else – we will be clear about how we will be funding that and that will be absolutely inside our fiscal rules.”
Kwasi Kwarteng, the business minister, said Labour’s spending plans were “reckless and unaffordable”. But he also would not be drawn on what Tory plans were.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps claimed that the £1.2 trillion the Conservatives has predicted Labour will spend consists of “for the most part, their figures”.
He told BBC 5 Live’s Pienaar’s Politics the numbers were from commitments made by Labour “frontbenchers” or from its party conference.
But senior Labour figures touring the TV and radio studios dismissed the Tory analysis. Andrew Gwynne, the party’s campaign chief, said it was “an absolute work of fiction” by the Conservatives.
“You can’t trust a word that Johnson and his ministers say on this issue,” he told Marr.
Questioned on what the correct figure for Labour’s spending is, he said that was “still being finalised”. Labour will finalise its manifesto next weekend at its clause five meeting.
Nia Griffith, the shadow defence secretary, told Sky News’ Ridge On Sunday Labour would not implement every policy from its annual conference, as she dismissed the £1.2 trillion figure as “absolutely ludicrous”.
“We’re not going to be implementing every single thing that was in our conference in this manifesto,” she said. “You can only do a certain amount at once, can’t you?”
Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth called the £1.2 trillion figure “nonsense”.
He told Pienaar’s Politics the correct figure would be clear “when we publish our manifesto”.
Laughing at the £1.2 trillion figure, he said: “The reason I’m laughing is I used to do this rubbish for the Labour Party years ago.
“I used to go through obscure Tory MPs and add up all the spending commitments and then Gordon Brown would stand there and say ‘we can now reveal that the Tories are spending billions’.
He added: “So I know exactly what the Tory researchers have done because I used to do it”.
SNP’s Westminster leader Ian Blackford said his party will come up with “a wish list” of things they want if the election results to a hung parliament.
He told Ridge On Sunday “a good night for the SNP is sending a very strong message from Scotland to Westminster” that about a second independence referendum.
“We’re going into this election defending 35 seats in Scotland out of 59, and we want to improve on that,” he said.
Co-leader of the Green Party Jonathan Bartley said he believes his party will secure “the biggest Green vote ever” in the upcoming General Election.
Speaking to Pienaar’s Politics, Bartley said: “I think at this election we’re seeing climate change right up there at the top of the agenda. We think we’re going to see the biggest Green vote ever.”